


an innocent fraud

by merriell



Series: the forest children [4]
Category: Original Work
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-01-22
Updated: 2015-01-22
Packaged: 2018-03-08 15:01:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,642
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3213458
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/merriell/pseuds/merriell
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>SWEDEN, 20XX. Despite Dani's warning for them not to come to Sweden, they found other ways to meet him.</p>
            </blockquote>





	an innocent fraud

She didn’t like cold even one bit.

Ami tightened the scarf around her neck as she moved closer to Aksa for warmth. It was still autumn in Sweden, but she shivered all the same, not used to the temperature at all. She quietly wondered how Dani had been faring on adapting to the drastic temperature. Indonesia was a tropical country, and it was very hot except in some places.

The presence of Aksa and Kama beside her, both towering on her sides like two guard dogs reminded her of the time they took a trip to Dieng, a mountain in Indonesia. They were missing two people that took the same trip as them back then—Dani, who they were going to meet now, and Caca, who had too much assignments to go with them. She had drifted away from them, Ami had noticed, even though she refused to acknowledge that their little group was breaking apart.

It started with Dani’s departure to Sweden. Ami still remembered it clearly, his words when he passed on the news that he had been offered a job overseas. She had been shocked, of course; she had thought from the start that he was going to stay in Indonesia, working at the same place where Aksa worked, but his flight turned out to be a week away. They threw a farewell party to him, and gave him charms made by themselves because they all know that they were going to have a hard time to meet, the distance and their own business being one of the reasons why.

Now that all three of them could find a time for their little reunion, Dani had called Ami one morning for them not to come.

Neither of them listened to that bit.

Which was why they were finding themselves in the front of Magical Creatures Conservation Society Center in Stockholm—which was separate with its actual conservation—going inside to meet Violet Skarsgard. Ami had seen her before, in the Witching Hour, a stern, ruthless figure in the rusalki scandal that was so controversial in Russia. She could remember her faintly-accented voice; the most infamous Skarsgard of all three that had been headlining the MCSS. There were even girls in the internet that was so fond of her, like they were to her friend, Summer Patria.

“Are you sure she’s going to be willing to meet us?” Kama asked as he ran his fingers through his hair. “I figured she’s a busy person, with that break-in on the conservation. They stole a Dyr, right?”

“Yes,” Aksa answered.

“I’ve called Dani’s uncle, and he said she’d meet us, so no worries there. Besides, it’s not like we’re press, we’re just here because we want to see Dani and he’s refusing to come out of that creatures-invested place.”

“You shouldn’t badmouth magical creatures at the center of MCSS, Amiyandra. They’ll take you for someone with potential to violate the CL.”

“I don’t even know what that is.”

“Creatures Law.”

“You just made that up.”

“Nah. Totally a real thing.”

While the two bantered, Aksa walked ahead of them inside the building. Once they’ve realized the tallest of three had entered, they scurried behind him, elbowing each other’s harshly to get inside before the other. By the time they’ve managed to walk into the receptionist of MCSS, Ami, who had upper hand in martial arts, had given Kama a slowly-forming bruise in the jaw. Aksa pointedly tried to act normal, to pretend that these two children weren’t his acquaintances by stepping away from the scene and showing off a polite smile to a confused MCSS worker who stared at the ruckus with some kind of amazement, but it was all in vain when Ami circled her arm on his, confirming their familiarity.

The boy in the receptionist who looked younger than them awkwardly gave them a teeth-showing grin, arms folded on his lap. “Good morning, sir and madam. What can I help you with?”

“We’re here to see Miss Skarsgard,” Amiyandra said to the receptionist, her best smile frozen on her face, honest but practiced.

“Do you have an appointment?”

“Yeah, we do have an appointment. Actually, we’re her nephews. We’re here to visit her. This is a family visit.”

Kama elbowed her again in her upper back, trying to gain her attention without saying anything. She glared at his _what the fuck we’re not her nephews_ face for a single second while the receptionist picked up the phone to, presumably, call whoever was in charge with Violet Skarsgard’s schedule. When the receptionist cautiously glanced at their blatantly suspicious attitude, Ami elbowed Kama right back to shut his mouth, which served to only make the situation more awkward than it already was.

Once the call ended, the receptionist boy nodded at them and pressed a button from behind the desk that made the elevator on the other side of the room opened. Ami didn’t notice that was there before, but still she said, “Thanks,” and made sure she offered the receptionist a smile before grabbing her friends’ hands and dragging them into the elevator.

She let go of both the boys’ hands as soon as they got inside the elevator. She wedged in between them, Aksa on her right and Kama on her left. As the elevator’s door closed smoothly and the elevator music started, Kama turned to Ami and scowled. “You, my friend, are a total fraud.”

“Oh, c’mon. We’re not getting appointment if we didn’t do that.” She rolled his eyes as she took in her reflection from the elevator’s door, messing up her hair so it had more volume and tugging at her suit, indifferent to Kama’s annoyance towards the lie she just said. “Don’t you know how busy Violet Skarsgard is? It’ll probably take a full three months for us to get an appointment, and we don’t have that much time.”

“We’re not her nephews!”

“Dani’s her nephew,” Aksa answered unhelpfully, leaning against the wall and completely indifferent to his friends’ arguments.

Both of them ignored him. Ami smiled at the screen that was showing which floor they were going and muttered, “This elevator sure takes a while.” She stroked the bell charm that encircled her hand, its sound ringing loudly even with the music in the background.

Kama sighed deeply, leaning on the elevator’s wall with his eyes closed, whining: “We’re going to get arrested.”

“We’re not going to get arrested.”

“We’re _definitely_ going to be arrested. Don’t you know how ruthless Skarsgard is? I’m going to say that I’ve no say for this and you two forced me into doing this.”

“You,” Ami turned at him, all attitude and hands on her hips, “are a coward.”

“Well, I’m sorry that I’m the only sane one in this situation. It’s like, I’m the only one sane enough not to want any criminal records in this fucking elevator, wow.”

“I told you, we’re _not_ going to get arrested!”

“Oh, rea—“

The jolt of the elevator cut his words cleanly in the middle like a sharp knife in the hand of a skilled chef. Both of them turned sharply to the direction of the door, stunned at the view in that opened in it. There was a pebbled path leading from the elevator’s door to a small building, tall trees stood tall in the sides of the pathway. The air was warm, almost like it was set in another place that was far different from Sweden’s cold temperature, impossible summer’s breeze blowing from source unknown.

Aksa walked ahead of them once again; Ami trailed behind him while she took of the scarf from around her neck—it was far too warm for their clothing—before moving on to taking off her jacket. Her laughter was on her lips as she saw a butterfly with transparent wings floating near her. When she raised her hand, it settled on the tip of her fingers, light seeping through the wings, forming little rainbows on Ami’s skin.

“A Qur,” Kama, who walked out last, retorted with a small smile as he saw the Qur in her hand. Behind him, the elevator’s door closed and faded into its background, a tight line of trees not showing any of the hint that there had been something on there before. As her eyes caught it, the tip of Ami’s lips rose; the elevator was an Einmagi’s device—she had read of it before, but hadn’t seen it with her own eyes.  “I haven’t see that anywhere beside National Geographic Channel.”

Moving her eyes back to the Qur in her hand, Ami murmured softly, “Yeah, me neither, it’s so pretty,” but the calm, magical moment burst into ruin when Kama leaned on her to look over her shoulder, his eyes squinting. The sudden movement kicked the Qur away, its movement inexplicably fast despite its small body. “You’re such a douchebag,” she said as she elbowed the side of Kama’s stomach.

Kama grinned at her, “You know, they said Qur is so fast because they have to avoid sandstorms.”

“I always wonder why I doubt any information that come out of your moouth.”

“Hey,” Aksa called their attention again. He had walked ahead of them to the end of the pebbled pathway and there was a woman beside him who towered above him even with his tall height. Her hair was red, but when she moved her head to stare at them, the strands of that crimson mane seemed even a brighter red than it originally was. “This is Miss Skarsgard’s assistant, she said. She’ll take us to her.”

Kama’s grin disappeared. “We’re really going to get arrested. I just know it. _Wow_.”

Ami only rolled her eyes and went after Aksa, pointedly reminding herself that the easiest way to deal with Kama was to ignore him completely.


End file.
